The Election is Upon Us! Mike Donachie joins to tell us about the first days and what might happen next.

The Municipal Election is upon us. What should we be looking between now and the end of June? At the beginning of May, nominations for the municipal election opened, and now, close to 30 campaigns for seats around the council horseshoe are underway. Journalist Mike Donachie is joining us to give us an update about what’s happening in these early days of London’s municipal election. On May 1st, when City Hall’s Election Office opened, almost two dozen Londoners lined up,some for hours, to file what’s called their “nomination papers”. What does that mean? Essentially, this is the final step a Londoner must take before officially becoming a candidate in this election. There is some leg work involved leading up to this step - including a requirement to collect 25 signatures from other Londoners who are “nominating them” to stand for office. The candidate must also provide additional information within this paper work to demonstrate they are eligible to run in this election. So, They stand in line, submit their forms, pay a fee - $100 to run as a Ward Councillor and $200 to run for mayor - and they’re off. With over 20 candidates filing to run for office on day one and a total of 27 at the recording of this episode and more today, things are happening. What does all of this activity and this number of candidates coming forward in these early days mean? Mike’s Donachie is here to tell us all about it. So let’s go. Thanks for listening! Also, Mike may be clairvoyant. Listen to what hew has to say about Susan Stephenson!